Why Cruciferous Veggies Are The Best

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Before getting into why you should do this, let’s lay out the playing field.

The team is made up of bok choy, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, collard greens, kale, kohlrabi, radishes, rutabaga, turnips, and watercress.

First and foremost, cruciferous veggies contain lots of cancer-crushing compounds like isothiocyanates (ITCs). So, a simple thing like eating these guys raw can protect one from bladder cancer. Out of a random test of 1,400 people, the ones that ate the most ITCs in their diet were less prone to developing bladder cancer, with seniors and smokers getting the best protection.

Broccoli sprouts, for example, are loaded with ITCs. There was a study done with rats that found that they more they ate the less likely they were to get bladder cancer and if the did, the cancer progressed very slowly.

Then, scientists discovered that the ITCs boosted the enzymes that protected the cells from oxidation. And we know that oxidation contributes to cancer. What happens is that the kidneys process the protective compounds and eventually flush them into the bladder, where they wait for you to go to the bathroom. This means that the ITCs spend lots of time in close contact with the bladder lining, where cancer is most likely to develop.

But cooked cruciferous veggies do not offer the same protection as raw because cooking can destroy the ITCs. What’s good to do is to cut up a variety of these veggies, keep them in the fridge, and snack on them with a bit of hummus or tasty cole slaw.

Broccoli, again, could better your odds of beating breast cancer and radically cut your chance of getting it in the first place. This is what cruciferous veggies do best.

Also, broccoli, cabbage, watercress, kale, cauliflower and the other crucifers are rich in plant compounds called glucosinolates. The bacteria, in your gut, breaks them down into other substances like sulforaphane, indole-3-carbinol, and ITCs, to name a few.

What happens next is these compounds cause cancer cells to commit suicide. This process is known as apoptosis. They also help prevent cancerous changes in your cells and change the way your body uses estrogen, so that less of the hormone fuels cancer growth.

Okay, sulforaphane is an antioxidant that revs up an enzyme in the body that gets rid of dangerous toxins. Therefore, eating the cruciferous veggies rich in it links to lower cancer risk. The people that conduct the studies with sulforaphane, because of its slowing of the growth of breast cancer cells, are hopeful that one day it could prevent estrogen-positive breast cancer.

Then, indole-3-carbinol breaks down further into diindolymethane (DIM), which prohibits two proteins that help breast cancer and ovarian cancer spread through your body. One study found that treating cancer cells with DIM reduced their spread by 80 percent.

The experts say that this could make the current cancer treatments like radiation and chemotherapy more effective, since DIM could stop the cancer from spreading or at least slow it down. DIM also boosts immune function, which may prevent cancer from ever getting stated.
Personally, I cannot believe the “cancer business” would ever consider this because the compound could radically affect their profits.

There is new research that connects crucifers high in ITCs, particularly raw white turnips and bok choy (Chinese cabbage), to a lower risk of breast cancer in postmenopausal women. Younger women benefitted as well, but for a different reason. Premenopausal women with certain types of genes faced a much higher risk of breast cancer than other women. But, if they ate cruciferous veggies, their risk dropped significantly.

You ladies that eat lots of things that had a face and a mother should take special care to pile on the crucifers. Grilling, pan-frying, smoking, barbecuing, and even broiling meat creates PAHs and HCAs, two carcinogens linked to breast cancer. In one study, the more grilled, barbecued, or smoked meats women ate, the more likely they were to develop breast cancer. And God forbid they ate lots of meat but fewer fruits and vegetables, the cancer risk jumped even higher.

Oh yeah, an interesting note about barbecuing dead, rotting flesh – the fat from the dead whatever that drips down onto the charcoal instigates a chemical called benzoapryne that flows upward and covers the dead body. When you eat it it’s as if you just smoked a carton of cigarettes at one time. Do you think that cancer could arise from this?

So, loading your plate with lots of fruits and veggies, particularly those rich in ITCs like crucifers, could possibly offset some of that risk if you are a meat-lover. White turnips, for example, are a great source. Raw, they contain an incredible 17 times more ITCs than bok choy. Watercress comes in with a close second with 16 times more ITCs than bok choy.

Then there are Brussels sprouts. These along with broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower can all protect you from colon cancer. They all contain a natural plant compound called glucobrassicin, which breaks down in your belly into indole-3-carbinol (I3C). Yeah, it’s hard to pronounce but gets digested even further, eventually turning into DIM. Evidence shows that DIM is behind the cancer-protection afforded by brassicas.

Tumors develop for two reasons:
1. Damaged cells multiply uncontrollably, forming tumors.
2. Damaged cells stop responding to signals your body sends them, telling them to die.

Certain compounds, such as DIM, help damaged cells to die when they should, so they don’t keep multiplying and turn cancerous. That’s why experts now think that eating brassicas like broccoli and Brussels sprouts may prevent colon cancer from developing and even slow the growth of existing cancer. That, in turn, could make traditional treatments more effective. Best of all, DIM does this without causing side effects, unlike medications.

How you eat them matters, though. The amount of protection you get from food depends partly upon how you prepare it.

Crucifers can lose 30 to 60 percent of their cancer-fighting compounds during cooking, but different methods yield different results. One study found that cooking red cabbage over low heat on the stove or lightly steaming it actually increased the cancer-fighting power.

Raw, however, may be the way to go. Rats that ate raw fresh watercress, green cabbage, and broccoli for nearly four months had fewer colon cancer markers than rats on regular diets.

Juicing does not work according to the study as vegetable juice had no effect on cancer in an animal study, nor did supplements made from the protective compounds in the vegetables.

Simple cabbage has surprising healing properties that combat infectious skin problems, strengthen weak bones, and lessen arthritis pain because cabbage and other cruciferous veggies have two nutrients that improve osteoarthritis pain and keep the disease from getting worse.

*Vitamin C reacts with iron to build healthy joint cartilage and antioxidants like vitamin C also keep you from losing cartilage and slows the progression of osteoarthritis (OA). In one study, people who got lots of vitamin C were less likely to have knee pain or see their OA get worse, while those in another study had fewer and smaller bone marrow lesions, which are the markers of arthritis, joint pain, and worsening OA.

*Cabbage and its fellow crucifers are also chock-full of vitamin K, which regulates the growth of bone and cartilage. Seniors, for example, with higher blood levels of vitamin K had fewer signs of hand and knee OA, in one study. The researchers feel that too little vitamin K may lead to shrinking cartilage and the growth of bone spurs common in arthritis.

*If ever the time came that we could go back to manure as fertilizer, most of there afflictions could be alleviated. But since the Rockefellers control the petro-chemical fertilization, that chance is slim. Thousands of people are attesting to the fact that the organic sulfur crystals relieve one of this agonizing joint pain.
Besides building cartilage, vitamin C may directly affect your bone health. It is a key part of the proteins that form collagen, one of the building blocks of bone, ligaments, tendons, and teeth. Plus, it stimulates your body to make bone cells. In postmenopausal women, higher vitamin C is associated with greater bone mineral density, an indicator of bone strength.

Vitamin K is essential in building osteocalcin, another major protein in bones. A shortage of vitamin K weakens your bones, and studies link low-K diets to lower bone mass density (BMD) and a higher risk of bone fracture.

If, however, you boost your vitamin K intake, it keeps you from losing calcium through urine, reduces the amount of bone your body breaks down, and increases the amount of bone in your body. In a 10-year study, women who got the least vitamin K in their diets were 30 percent more likely to fracture their hip, while other research found that men and women who got the most vitamin k were 65 percent less likely to fracture a hip.

As early as the 1930s, scientists realized vitamin C helped heal cold sores and other lesions caused by the Herpes simplex virus. Further research showed it could help heal outbreaks twice as fast as simply waiting, probably because it enhances your immune system and fights viruses.

When it comes to vitamin K, ordinary boiled cabbage is best. Just half a cup of cooked cabbage meets 100 percent of your daily K needs, not to mention almost half your vitamin C requirements, in only 17 calories.

If you want more vitamin C, start adding raw red cabbage to salads and cole slaws as a cup of chopped cabbage provides 85 percent of the day’s vitamin C and about 40 percent of your vitamin K, all in only 28 calories.

Back to broccoli. It has two powerful cruciferous chemicals that can amp up your rundown immune system, to ward off viruses and keep you healthier throughout the year.

When you sit down to a meal with broccoli, cabbage, or kale, you are helping your immune system to fight off infections. DIM, one of the compounds formed when you digest these foods, pumps up your immune system by increasing cytokines, the proteins that help regulate immune cells, increase more macrophages, which are immune cells that help kill bacteria and tumor cells, and increase two-fold the number of white blood cells, which fight off infection by killing the bugs attacking your body.

Again, sulforaphane boosts the immune system as well. It increases the killer immune cells, helps produce more cytokines and lymphocytes, and stimulates other parts other parts of the immune system. What’s more, certain crucifers like broccoli are excellent sources of vitamin C, another virus-busting nutrient. Try some broccoli or
Brussels sprouts with a meal to ward off a sickness instead of turning to synthetic meds.

Last but not least, cauliflower. Eating cauliflower at least once a week is effective in protection from deadly forms of prostate cancer. Crucifers are full of natural cancer-fighting compounds, including ITCs, indoles, and sulforaphane, which help protect the genetic material in your cells from damage.

What’s more, broccoli is high in phenols, the plant substances that boost your immune system and stamp out dangerous compounds that can lead to cancerous changes in your body. Anyway, here are what crucifers like broccoli and cauliflower can do for your prostate.

They can evade aggressive cancers if eaten more than once a week and they can shrink prostate tumors. And if tomatoes and broccoli are eaten together, they combine to create more of an impact because of the heavy natural cancer-fighting properties in them.

To gain optimum benefit you should eat about one-and-a-half cups of broccoli daily, along with two-and-a-half-cups of fresh tomatoes, or one cup of tomato sauce, or half a cup of tomato paste.

To be and stay healthy, it may be necessary to alter the way you eat. First you need to severely minimize your flesh intake. Next, you should eat as much organically grown produce as possible and eliminate all GMOs (bear in mind all flesh foods the walk or crawl are fed GMOs in their feed).

If you sprinkle some curry on your cauliflower it does wonders. PEITC, a compound in cruciferous veggies, and curcumin, a compound in curry seasoning, can stop new prostate tumors from developing and stop existing ones from spreading.

Then chew or chop your veggies because the PEITC and other ITCs form when the plant’s cells get crushed up during chewing or chopping. Be sure to chew the crucifers thoroughly so they turn to saliva in your mouth and you wind up drinkAing them. That way you’ll get the most prostate protection.

Last but not least, did you ever see Technicolor cauliflower? You can now buy cauliflower in purple, orange and green. For real! The purple one are loaded with anthocyanin, the same phytochemical found in red grapes and red wine; the orange ones are loaded with beta carotene to the tune of about 25 times more than the white; and the green take the cake with more vitamins C and A.

Bon appétit!

Aloha!

About Hesh:

I have been doing a radio show in Honolulu since 1981 called “Health Talk”. To listen to the show please go to www.kwai1080am.com on your computer at 8am Hawaii time. FYI, 8am Hawaii time is 11am on the West coast and 2pm on the East coast. To call in, the number is (808) 524-1080.

Now, American Voice Radio will be picking up my streamed show and playing it all week until the next one takes place. To listen, go to americanvoiceradio.com and click on my link at AVR 2. Starting in December I will be doing another radio show on AVR at 9:00 am Hawaii time. Just go to the website, click on AVR 1, and listen live or tune in later and listen via the archive. See you on the radio!

In 2007, I was “forced” to get a masters degree in Nutrition to stop all the doctors from calling in asking what my credentials were. Besides that, they never liked it when I asked them what their credentials were that would enable them to treat an illness without drugs or surgery.

If you go to www.healthtalkhawaii.com and click on Podcasts, there are years of shows there as well as hundreds of health related articles.

I am an activist. I am vehemently opposed to GMOs, vaccines, processed foods, MSG, aspartame, fluoridation, and everything else that the “pimps” (big pHarma, Monsanto, and the large food companies), and the “hookers” (the doctors, the government agencies, the Public Health officials, and the mainstream media) thrust upon us, the “tricks”.

At 75, I am in 3 softball leagues, racewalk, do stand-up paddling, hike, swim, do weights and cardio, and teach women’s self-defense classes based upon 20 years of Wing Chun training. I have been a vegetarian since 1975 and a vegan since 1990, have no illnesses and take no meds.

After being vaccinated with the DTP vaccine as a child, I developed asthma, which plagued me until 2008 when I learned about and started taking the organic sulfur crystals. My asthma was reversed in 3 days and has not come back.

So far, 26 cases of autism that we know about have been reversed, as has cancer, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, asthma, osteoarthritis, joint pain, gingivitis, and erectile dysfunction. The sulfur has increased sexual activity, eliminated toxins, heavy metals, radiation, and parasites. It speeds up athletic recovery time, increases blood circulation, reduces inflammation, increases resistance to the “flu”, reduces wrinkles, allergies, PMS, monthly period pain, migraines, nausea, and way more, because the oxygen that the sulfur releases floods and heals the cells in the body.

The sulfur, as proven by the University of Southampton in England, enables the body to produce vitamin B12 and the essential amino acids.

You can find out more about this on my website under Products.

My book, “A Sane Diet For An Insane World”, which has been published, can be viewed and purchased at www.asanediet.com. The book clearly explains why what you eat, for the most part, is designed to keep you in a state of declining health.

I have recently discovered an amazing super food – Zeal – that contains 42 amazing probiotics, anti-oxidents and more, all designed to build and strengthen the immune system. For more info about this please email me.

And now I have come across an amazing bee pollen that is so soft it melts in your mouth and has so many benefits. It is rich in vitamin B12 and all B vitamins, proteins, minerals, beneficial fatty acids, carotenoids, bioflavenoids, antioxidants, antihistamines, enzymes, antibiotics, and natural phenylalanine, which acts as an appetite suppressant, and more.

Hesh Goldstein, MSNutri
“Health Talk” Moderator, K-108 Radio
POB 240783, Honolulu, Hi 96824
(808) 258-1177

Hesh Goldstein
When I was a kid, if I were told that I'd be writing a book about diet and nutrition when I was older, let alone having been doing a health related radio show for over 36 years, I would've thought that whoever told me that was out of their mind. Living in Newark, New Jersey, my parents and I consumed anything and everything that had a face or a mother except for dead, rotting, pig bodies, although we did eat bacon (as if all the other decomposing flesh bodies were somehow miraculously clean). Going through high school and college it was no different. In fact, my dietary change did not come until I was in my 30's.

Just to put things in perspective, after I graduated from Weequahic High School and before going to Seton Hall University, I had a part-time job working for a butcher. I was the delivery guy and occasionally had to go to the slaughterhouse to pick up products for the store. Needless to say, I had no consciousness nor awareness, as change never came then despite the horrors I witnessed on an almost daily basis.

After graduating with a degree in accounting from Seton Hall, I eventually got married and moved to a town called Livingston. Livingston was basically a yuppie community where everyone was judged by the neighborhood they lived in and their income. To say it was a "plastic" community would be an understatement.

Livingston and the shallowness finally got to me. I told my wife I was fed up and wanted to move. She made it clear she had to be near her friends and New York City. I finally got my act together and split for Colorado.

I was living with a lady in Aspen at the end of 1974, when one day she said, " let's become vegetarians". I have no idea what possessed me to say it, but I said, "okay"! At that point I went to the freezer and took out about $100 worth of frozen, dead body parts and gave them to a welfare mother who lived behind us. Well, everything was great for about a week or so, and then the chick split with another guy.

So here I was, a vegetarian for a couple weeks, not really knowing what to do, how to cook, or basically how to prepare anything. For about a month, I was getting by on carrot sticks, celery sticks, and yogurt. Fortunately, when I went vegan in 1990, it was a simple and natural progression. Anyway, as I walked around Aspen town, I noticed a little vegetarian restaurant called, "The Little Kitchen".

Let me back up just a little bit. It was April of 1975, the snow was melting and the runoff of Ajax Mountain filled the streets full of knee-deep mud. Now, Aspen was great to ski in, but was a bummer to walk in when the snow was melting.

I was ready to call it quits and I needed a warmer place. I'll elaborate on that in a minute.

But right now, back to "The Little Kitchen". Knowing that I was going to leave Aspen and basically a new vegetarian, I needed help. So, I cruised into the restaurant and told them my plight and asked them if they would teach me how to cook. I told them in return I would wash dishes and empty their trash. They then asked me what I did for a living and I told them I was an accountant.

The owner said to me, "Let's make a deal. You do our tax return and we'll feed you as well". So for the next couple of weeks I was doing their tax return, washing their dishes, emptying the trash, and learning as much as I could.

But, like I said, the mud was getting to me. So I picked up a travel book written by a guy named Foder. The name of the book was, "Hawaii". Looking through the book I noticed that in Lahaina, on Maui, there was a little vegetarian restaurant called," Mr. Natural's". I decided right then and there that I would go to Lahaina and work at "Mr. Natural's." To make a long story short, that's exactly what happened.

So, I'm working at "Mr. Natural's" and learning everything I can about my new dietary lifestyle - it was great. Every afternoon we would close for lunch at about 1 PM and go to the Sheraton Hotel in Ka'anapali and play volleyball, while somebody stayed behind to prepare dinner.

Since I was the new guy, and didn't really know how to cook, I never thought that I would be asked to stay behind to cook dinner. Well, one afternoon, that's exactly what happened; it was my turn. That posed a problem for me because I was at the point where I finally knew how to boil water.

I was desperate, clueless and basically up the creek without a paddle. Fortunately, there was a friend of mine sitting in the gazebo at the restaurant and I asked him if he knew how to cook. He said the only thing he knew how to cook was enchiladas. He said that his enchiladas were bean-less and dairy-less. I told him that I had no idea what an enchilada was or what he was talking about, but I needed him to show me because it was my turn to do the evening meal.

Well, the guys came back from playing volleyball and I'm asked what was for dinner. I told them enchiladas; the owner wasn't thrilled. I told him that mine were bean-less and dairy-less. When he tried the enchilada he said it was incredible. Being the humble guy that I was, I smiled and said, "You expected anything less"? It apparently was so good that it was the only item on the menu that we served twice a week. In fact, after about a week, we were selling five dozen every night we had them on the menu and people would walk around Lahaina broadcasting, 'enchilada's at "Natural's" tonight'. I never had to cook anything else.

A year later the restaurant closed, and somehow I gravitated to a little health food store in Wailuku. I never told anyone I was an accountant and basically relegated myself to being the truck driver. The guys who were running the health food store had friends in similar businesses and farms on many of the islands. I told them that if they could organize and form one company they could probably lock in the State. That's when they found out I was an accountant and "Down to Earth" was born. "Down to Earth" became the largest natural food store chain in the islands, and I was their Chief Financial Officer and co-manager of their biggest store for 13 years.

In 1981, I started to do a weekly radio show to try and expose people to a vegetarian diet and get them away from killing innocent creatures. I still do that show today. I pay for my own airtime and have no sponsors to not compromise my honesty. One bit of a hassle was the fact that I was forced to get a Masters Degree in Nutrition to shut up all the MD's that would call in asking for my credentials.

My doing this radio show enabled me, through endless research, to see the corruption that existed within the big food industries, the big pharmaceutical companies, the biotech industries and the government agencies. This information, unconscionable as it is, enabled me to realize how broken our health system is. This will be covered more in depth in the Introduction and throughout the book and when you finish the book you will see this clearly and it will hopefully inspire you to make changes.

I left Down to Earth in 1989, got nationally certified as a sports injury massage therapist and started traveling the world with a bunch of guys that were making a martial arts movie. After doing that for about four years I finally made it back to Honolulu and got a job as a massage therapist at the Honolulu Club, one of Hawaii's premier fitness clubs. It was there I met the love of my life who I have been with since 1998. She made me an offer I couldn't refuse. She said," If you want to be with me you've got to stop working on naked women". So, I went back into accounting and was the Chief Financial Officer of a large construction company for many years.

Going back to my Newark days when I was an infant, I had no idea what a "chicken" or "egg" or "fish" or "pig" or "cow" was. My dietary blueprint was thrust upon me by my parents as theirs was thrust upon them by their parents. It was by the grace of God that I was able to put things in their proper perspective and improve my health and elevate my consciousness.

The road that I started walking down in 1975 has finally led me to the point of writing my book, “A Sane Diet For An Insane World”. Hopefully, the information contained herein will be enlightening, motivating, and inspiring to encourage you to make different choices. Doing what we do out of conditioning is not always the best course to follow. I am hoping that by the grace of the many friends and personalities I have encountered along my path, you will have a better perspective of what road is the best road for you to travel on, not only for your health but your consciousness as well.

Last but not least: after being vaccinated as a kid I developed asthma, which plagued me all of my life. In 2007 I got exposed to the organic sulfur crystals, which got rid of my asthma in 3 days and has not come back in over 10 years. That, being the tip of the iceberg, has helped people reverse stage 4 cancers, autism, joint pain, blood pressure problems, migraine headaches, erectile dysfunction, gingivitis, and more. Also, because of the detoxification effects by the release of oxygen that permeates and heals all the cells in the body, it removes parasites, radiation, fluoride, free radicals, and all the other crap that is thrust upon us in the environment by Big Business.

For more, please view www.healthtalkhawaii.com and www.asanediet.com.

Namaste!